Did you know: 94% of DMK's candidates contesting this LS polls are crorepatis

There is no dearth of crorepati candidates contesting this year’s Lok Sabha elections. And, regional parties are winning the rich candidates’ race.

According to a report by the National Election Watch (NEW) and Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR), out of the 601 candidates who are contesting in the phase 9 of Lok Sabha 2014 elections, 171 (28 pc) are crorepatis.

[caption id=“attachment_84427” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A file photo of M Karunanidhi. PTI[/caption]

Karunanidhi’s DMK leads the list with 94 percent of its candidates being crorepatis. 82 percent of theAIADMK’s candidates are crorepatis. 79 percent of the Congress party has crorepati candidates while 73 percent of theBharatiya Janata Party’s candidtaes are super rich.

Out of the 35 candidates scrutinized by the ADR, 33 are crorepatis. The report notes that details of some of the candidates were not analysed due to unclear/incomplete affidavits uploaded on the ECI website at the time of making of the report.

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Among the candidates fielded by the Trinamool Congress and the Bhaujan Samaj Party (BSP), the percentage of crorepati leaders are 33 and 27 per cent respectively, the report noted.

The report also notes that the average assets of the 396 re-contesting Members of Parliament between the Lok Sabha elections of 2009 and the ongoing one jumped by a stunning 145 percent. Average assets grew by Rs 8.5 crore. In the 2009 elections, the average assets of these candidates was about Rs 5.8 crore. Read more about the growing assets of the MPs here.